Slashdot Mirror
Apple To Obsolete iPhone 4 and Late 2010 MacBook Air On October 31 (macrumors.com)
Apple will make all iPhone 4 models, the late 2010 13-inch MacBook Air, third-generation AirPort Extreme, and mid-2009 AirPort Time Capsule obsolete come October 31, MacRumor claims, citing a different report. From the report: Apple products on the vintage and obsolete list are no longer eligible for hardware service, beyond a few exceptions. Apple defines vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than five years but less than seven years ago, while obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than seven years ago. Each of the products added were released between 2009 and 2010. The report specifically pertains to Apple's vintage and obsolete products list in Japan, but the new additions will more than likely extend to the United States, Australia, Canada, and the rest of the Asia-Pacific and Europe regions.
Technically they haven't been dropped on the software side yet, just hardware. The AirPort Extreme was a good little worker for me, but obsolete is a pretty good term for it. I forget if my Air is a 2010 or 2011, but it keeps on chugging, even running AutoCAD in a VM in a pinch. Unfortunately, that is the model that doesn't have after-market SSDs available which limits upgrade options.
When I compare it to the "high-end" Dell equipment we buy, we get about 40% longer useful life and substantially fewer hardware issues with Apple. There are fundamental design issues with both, but nothing that is a deal-killer.